There will be symbols depicting the logical structure of an electronic component like an IC, passive devices such as resister, capacitor, connectors and modules, board figures etc. Layout is where you place the physical symbols also known as Footprints on the work space of the Printed circuit board. The works pace is a boundary of the PCB which depicts the actual dimensions of the board.
The footprint is an exact depiction of the physical structure of the component having a definite boundary and solder pads (known as PAD STACKS) on it. A footprint is just a symbol and it can be used for multiple instances or entries on the board.
For example, a data buffer and a level translator can a same physical package and can share the same footprint as well. Generation of manufacturing data is a phase where you create the final files that go to the PCB fabrication house and these files have universal format which is accepted by the majority of the fabrication houses. In the general terms these files are called as GERBER files. Along with manufacturing data, you also create the files which are required by the assembly house for the component assembly on to the bare physical PCB. Best Free Circuit Design Software There are several software’s available in the market to perform these things to design the PCB.